In many ways, Vibram mountain athlete Meredith Edwards’s trip to Denali has been in the works for more than six years. In April, 2017, she went to Mexico and climbed Pico de Orizaba (Citlaltépetl), North America’s third highest peak. That planted the seed for her—it made her start thinking about big mountains, even bigger ones than in her backyard of Silverton, Colorado.
“It was my first time at really high altitude,” Edwards said. “And I liked it.”
With a summit elevation of 20,310 feet, Denali is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land. The current women’s Denali FKT stands at 21 hours, 6 minutes, set by Katie Bono in 2017. The men’s FKT was set in 2019 by Karl Egloff in 11 hours and 29 minutes. The ascent involves moving from base camp at 7,200 feet, straight up a ‘Z’ shaped ridge for more than 13,000 feet over 15 miles, passing through 14 Camp at 14,000 feet, where many people spend days or weeks acclimating.
But Edwards didn’t go to Alaska just to hunt down an FKT. “I’m really lucky because I have a teammate, Hannah Green, who is also going to be there, and we…
